Chapter Eighteen

Everyone was tense and amazed both on the drive to Bayou Sauvage. It was impossible not to keep looking up at the dragons flying out ahead of them. It wasn't the first time there had been real monsters, but every time it happened was always an awe-inspiring event.

"You know," Joey commented, "I don't think we've ever even dealt with the Five-Headed Dragon when it wasn't connected with the Big Five, except for that time in Shadi's Capsule Monsters game."

"And same with Blue Eyes White Dragon and Kaiba," Tristan noted. "I'm pretty sure Capsule Monsters was the only time we saw it when it didn't have something to do with either Kaiba or his ancestor."

"It's kind of cool that those monsters are connected with them so strongly," Serenity said.

"I wonder what monsters are supposed to make up the five heads," Joey frowned. "When I think about it, the monster the Big Five uses isn't the same one we saw in Capsule Monsters. I mean, the dragons that got together to make it were different."

"That's true," Atem nodded. They were all traveling in one of the rented vans to reduce the number of vehicles they needed to take. Tristan was driving.

"I never thought about it before, but you're right," Yugi realized. "I'm not sure all of them were different, but the one in the middle definitely was."

"Yeah! The Big Five's middle dragon head was kind of dull yellow or light brown," Joey remembered. "The Capsule Monsters one was turquoise."

"And the Capsule Monsters' dragon was definitely a bad guy," Tristan said. "Apparently the Big Five's dragon doesn't have to be."

"That's still weird to think about," Joey said. "I mean, they were actually worried about me and Tristan last night!"

"Everyone was worried, Ding-Dong," Mai retorted.

"Yeah, but the Big Five . . . !" Joey shook his head.

"I think it's awesome," Téa finally spoke up. "I'm really glad we've made friends with a lot of our former enemies."

"Uh huh, and you're probably especially glad about Kaiba," Mai quipped.

Téa went red. "Huh?! Well, of course I'm glad that he's not an enemy anymore too!"

Yugi looked ahead to the van where the Bakuras, the Ishtars, and the Kaibas were riding. "So am I," he said quietly. "I wanted to make friends with Kaiba for a long time. And in spite of Atem's frustrations with him, so did he."

"Maybe especially because of my frustrations with him," Atem corrected.

Duke leaned back, watching the scenery change as they neared Bayou Sauvage. "The dragons haven't alerted us to anything yet," he said in concern. "What if they're not here either?"

"Or maybe she landed and the dragon's hidden under some moss-covered tree," David suggested.

"Let's not lose hope," Atem said. "We're just approaching the fringes of this preserve now."

"Which means we'll all have to get out and ride Dragon First Class," Téa gulped. "I hope they really will be able to hold us all. . . ."

"If they can't, we'll just have to draw straws on who stays behind," Tristan said.

"This is one experience I really wouldn't mind passing on," David said.

Joey rolled his eyes. "Come on! You and Duke didn't ride Red Eyes when the Big Five hijacked Kaiba's augmented reality game. You guys should give dragon-riding a chance now!"

"We probably will, unless there's just not room," Duke said, twirling a piece of hair around his finger. "Then it would be logical for us to be the ones to drop out." He frowned. "Although I'd hate to sit out the fight in there, even if we can't really do much to help."

Tristan pulled over to the side of the road. Up ahead, the other vehicles were doing likewise. "Well," he said, "it's time to see what we've got here."

The dragons landed in the grass just beyond the vehicles and bent down to allow everyone to climb on as best as they could. With Blue Eyes, it was fairly straight-forward. With the Five-Headed Dragon, it was a puzzle.

"So . . . should we each sit behind our chosen elemental head?" Nesbitt wondered.

"I suppose so," Lector said.

"My dragon's head is constantly in flames!" Nesbitt sputtered. "What if I end up falling on its neck?!"

"Maybe you've got some kinda natural immunity to it?" Joey suggested. "Or maybe there's an invisible barrier around it?"

Scowling, but knowing he needed to test it himself to be sure, Nesbitt slowly reached out a finger towards the flaming neck. His shoulders slumped in his relief when nothing happened. "I guess there is a barrier," he said. "Although maybe only for me."

They all climbed aboard.

At the Blue Eyes White Dragon, Seto was struggling again over what to do about Mokuba. And Mokuba himself didn't feel up to pleading to come along.

"If you want me to stay back, Seto, that's okay," he said quietly. "I probably should; I'd probably just get somebody else hurt. . . ."

Marik looked over with a jerk. "Now just a minute," he protested. "Mokuba, you saved me! I would have tried to escape through the window of my prison and ended up setting off a bomb if you hadn't come right then. And you got me out of the room all by yourself."

"And then I couldn't get us back out and I got Lector hurt trying to save me," Mokuba trembled. "Even though it was Portman who made him look dead, he could have been killed because of me!"

"Mokuba . . ." Seto bent down to be at his brother's eye level. "Lector chose to help you. You didn't get him hurt. And Marik's right that you saved him. At some time or another, each person is able to help another person, and then other times they're the ones who need help instead. It's never always one way or the other."

Mokuba looked away, blinking back tears. "I guess. . . ."

"I would be dead without you, Mokuba," Marik said quietly. "And without Nesbitt too. We all help each other."

"And unless there isn't room for some of the others, I'd rather you come along," Seto said. "There's no way I'm leaving you here alone."

Finally Mokuba nodded. "Okay. . . ." He slowly climbed up on the dragon first. Seto immediately followed and sat behind him.

As it turned out, all of the others were able to fit on the massive beasts, and soon the dragons were taking flight once again, soaring into the wildlife preserve.

Mokuba started to cheer up as they flew. "This really is amazing," he breathed. "It's a real Blue Eyes. . . ."

"It still seems unreal," Seto grunted. But from his eyes, he was thoroughly enjoying himself and was awed and amazed by the ride. He and Mokuba had ridden dragons before, but usually only in games. They had ridden a real-life Red Eyes, but not a Blue Eyes.

"It's really hard to see anything down there," Téa said in concern. "What if we miss them?"

"Right now we're over open ground," Seto said. "It's more likely they're in the trees."

"And there's other things in the trees too, like gators swimming below them," Tristan gulped.

"Gators?!" Joey quaked.

"And who knows what else," Duke muttered.

"Gah!" Joey wailed.

"It's going to be okay, Joey," Serenity soothed.

"Maybe," Joey retorted. "If you're not afraid of gators, Sis."

Serenity shivered. "Well . . . maybe we won't have to meet any," she hoped. "Although if they don't hurt us, it would be kind of cool to see them. . . ."

"I can think of things that are a lot more cool!" Joey shot back.

After several minutes the area began to look more like classic pictures of New Orleans' swamps, with thick trees draped in Spanish moss looming over the murky water. Strange shadows began to form in the scenery, and Joey shifted in distress.

"Are my eyes playing more tricks on me?" he whimpered. "What's all that?!"

"Some of it's probably just shadows cast by the moon," Tristan said. "But maybe one of them's Dr. Raven!"

"I just saw a glint from something down there," Lector announced. "That could be his green crystal."

"Then let's go down for a closer look," Gansley said.

Both dragons were still in the process of coming down when green sparks lit up the night sky and a female voice screamed on the wind. "This is for my brother! My father set up those bombs, but you didn't have to take advantage of them! You deliberately killed Démas!"

A male voice screamed in surprised pain. There was a crash, though it didn't keep him down long. In a moment he was up again, and firing his own green sparks from his crystal.

Now it was the girl yelling in pain. At the same moment, Berserk Dragon gave a strange hissing roar.

"Evangeline!" Lector cried out in terror.

"You!" Dr. Raven whirled, directing his staff at the Big Five. "How did you survive?!"

"You don't already know?" Lector snapped. "You're supposed to be such a powerful magic user. I hear you know things, such as that two specific people would be coming here whom you would want to scare with a little coffin trick."

"Yeah, that's right!" Joey yelled, shaking a fist. "You ordered those coffins with our names on them way ahead of time, you big creep!"

Dr. Raven sneered. "My powers afford me some information, but sadly not all."

While their enemy was distracted, Lector held up his ring, willing it to work. It glowed, and tendrils of darkness began to swirl out from it and towards Dr. Raven to confuse him. Lector, however, hadn't quite expected the ring's powers to be like that. He trembled and fell back, his concentration and will broken. He didn't want to be reminded of being cast into the darkness. . . . This might not be an evil darkness, but the other certainly had been. And both looked quite the same.

Johnson, who was sitting next to him, gently reached and pushed his hand down. "I'll take care of it." He willed his ring to activate, and it conjured fog and mist to close in around Dr. Raven.

"Don't cover him up!" Evangeline suddenly screamed. "I need him visible to enact my vengeance on him!"

"Evangeline, you have to stop this," Lector begged. "I am alive! You saw even Dr. Raven recognized it! Obviously I'm not an illusion he made!"

For a moment Evangeline wavered. Then she snarled and leaped back on her dragon's back. "Go forward!" she ordered. "You can pierce through the fog! Find Dr. Raven so we can kill him!"

Berserk Dragon roar-hissed. It opened its mouth, releasing four gleaming fireballs one right after the other. Terrified, Dr. Raven tried to retaliate from inside the fog, but he could not. One fireball hit its mark and he went flying back against a tree, only to slide to the ground with a pained grunt.

"Aww, poor Dr. Raven," Crump couldn't resist taunting. "One little overpowered girl and her pet dragon are too much for you?"

"I wouldn't do that, Crump," Gansley cautioned. "He probably has something right ready for a counter attack."

"And we'll make sure he doesn't get the chance to use it," Crump vowed.

Green sparks were flying at them in the next moment. Gansley countered by raising his Earth ring and activating its powers. The ground underneath Dr. Raven shook and cracked, sending him tumbling backwards.

"Alright!" Joey grinned. "Yeah! Give it to him!"

Crump quelled the still-approaching magic blasts by using a blast of his ring's Water powers. The sparks were soon shorting out.

"Nice thinking," Yugi said, smiling.

"I could get used to this," Crump said.

Dr. Raven got back to his feet once again, this time loudly chanting something while waving his staff above the cracked spot on the ground. The fissure began to close.

Evangeline was diving at him again now, blasting him hard with both hands while her Berserk Dragon also prepared to blast. He only barely managed to counteract in time.

"So . . . what're you guys planning to do here?" Joey wondered. "You had to have more of a plan than just sitting around laughing at them both!"

"I am hardly laughing at my sister," Lector snapped.

"I've gotta say, would it really be so terrible to let Evangeline take the creep out?" Crump said.

"I can't say I wouldn't root for her to do it," Lector admitted. "But even so, it's not something I want to try to have Evangeline recover from. I doubt the police would agree with her motives." He looked down at the dragon. "Take us closer."

The Five-Headed Dragon obeyed, swooping down and hovering just above the struggle. Lector jumped off, landing in the grass between them. "Evangeline, I need you to listen to me," he said firmly. "I am not dead. If you can help us disarm Dr. Raven, that would be wonderful. But I don't want you to kill him."

"You are an illusion he cast!" Evangeline shrieked. "You're just trying to protect him!"

"No, Evangeline, I'm trying to protect you," Lector countered.

Gansley saw first that Dr. Raven was about to use the distraction to blast Lector with his staff. "Look out!" he yelled.

Seto noticed too. He acted immediately, blasting Dr. Raven off his feet with a beam of light from his ring. The corrupt priest roared in frustration.

Evangeline slipped around Lector and grabbed the staff before Dr. Raven could protest. "Now you're powerless!" she cried. "And I . . ." Her eyes widened. Green sparks and tendrils of electricity emerged from the staff's orb and traveled down her arm. When they reached the jade amulet, an explosion of light circled completely in its glow. She gripped the staff horizontally above her head with both hands. "Now I am the most powerful voodoo queen there ever was!"

"Oh boy," Joey gulped.

"Now she's got two magic items!" Duke said in horror. "What's she going to do now?!"

Dr. Raven began to back up on the grass, utter terror on his face. "There is no hope now," he said.

Yami Bakura jumped down next to him and wrenched his arms behind his back. Nesbitt leaped down to join him.

"You were going to use the power of both objects yourself," Yami Bakura growled. "What was going to happen when you did it?"

Dr. Raven's visage contorted in pain as Yami Bakura twisted his arms and Nesbitt started to pull him to his feet. "I was going to take over the world, I admit it," Dr. Raven gasped. "But at least I would have handled the power better! The girl is young and impressionable and emotional. She has no idea how to handle either object! They're controlling her instead of the other way around!"

Lector stared in horror as Evangeline leaped onto Berserk Dragon and posed to take to the skies. "This world is mine!" she screamed. "I will be its ruler and everyone in it will bow down to me!"

Thunder crashed above them as lightning streaked through the sky, apparently in response to Evangeline's declaration and her possession of the artifacts. The ground started to rumble.

"What the heck?!" Joey screamed.

Duke clutched Serenity close, turning pale as dark clouds began to spread out across the entire sky.

David grabbed Duke. "I guess it goes without saying that this is bad," he exclaimed over the thunder.

"You think?!" Duke shot back.

"I wonder if I can stop the earthquake," Gansley growled. He raised the ring and concentrated. Instead, his ring's power hit a barrier and he gasped, falling forward on his dragon's neck.

"Oh no you don't!" Crump exclaimed. Together, he and Johnson grabbed Gansley and kept him from falling off altogether.

Gansley slumped against his friends. He didn't want to say he was defeated, but he was definitely at a loss. "Why couldn't I stop it?" he said in dismay.

"We're so new to these powers," Johnson said.

"But so is she!" Gansley retorted.

"Only she's being controlled by the objects," Nesbitt called from the ground. "They must have some kind of sentience."

"Well, that's the creepiest thing I've heard today," Crump exclaimed.

"But it makes sense," Nesbitt argued. "And it gives them the edge. They know all the ins and outs of their magic."

"I suppose," Gansley said. But his eyes flickered. There was no way he wouldn't feel like a failure in this scenario.

Seto, meanwhile, was trying to quell the thunder and lightning. In a moment he snarled in frustration. "I'm not having any better luck," he said.

"There's only one way we're going to stop this." Lector ran for Berserk Dragon and desperately started climbing up its side. "Evangeline!"

"Oh my gosh!" Téa cried. "Is that dragon going to stand for that?!"

Crump was panicking too. "Lector, get down from there!" He jumped down from the Five-Headed Dragon and ran over to him. "It's gonna throw you in the swamp or something! Or blast you!"

Instead, Berserk Dragon growled low but didn't try to stop Lector's ascent.

"I don't know," Yugi said. "Maybe Berserk Dragon remembers that he's Lector's dragon too."

"I'm not taking a chance on that!" Crump shot back.

Gansley gripped his dragon's head, his knuckles white. He doubted he could follow them, but . . . maybe Berserk Dragon really wasn't going to harm Lector. . . . Still, what about Evangeline in her crazed state? Nesbitt had been controlled so thoroughly that he had hurt Lector, and judging from his sheet-white appearance, that was definitely on his mind.

Johnson was stiff, not sure what to do. "Maybe we should stay here," he said to Gansley. "Maybe we can help from the sky if something goes wrong. . . ."

Gansley clenched his teeth. He didn't know where they should be. He was their leader, but he was at a complete loss right now. This was not a situation he had ever once thought they would have to deal with.

"I'll get on Berserk Dragon's other side," Seto said. "If it's surrounded, it won't be able to take flight." He directed Blue Eyes to go to Berserk Dragon's left.

". . . That's a good point," Gansley had to admit. Seto was much more of a natural in this nightmare than he was.

To Evangeline's credit, she did not try to stop Lector from coming up to her. Instead she just stood and watched, glowering, her arms folded while she gripped the staff with one hand. But when Lector came and stood over her, she wavered.

"Evangeline, what's all this talk about power?" Lector demanded. "That wasn't what you wanted when you first put on that amulet."

Evangeline trembled, a lone tear slipping from her eye. "You're dead," she whispered, "and I've gone after the people who killed you. I don't have any home or family to go back to, so there's nothing left but to use the power I have now. . . ."

Lector's heart broke. He gently reached out, brushing the hair away from her face. "I'm not dead, Evangeline," he said. "Can't you feel this? An illusion couldn't touch you. And if I really was an illusion created by Dr. Raven, I'd have disappeared once you took his power from him."

Evangeline stared up at him in disbelieving awe. "Démas . . . ? You . . . you're real?"

"Yes," Lector insisted. "You don't have to fight anymore, Evangeline. It's over."

Evangeline suddenly sobbed. Her eyes stopped glowing and reverted back to their normal color. The amulet and the staff also ceased to glow, and the sky began to clear as the ground calmed. She threw her arms around Lector, clutching him close. "How can you forgive me?" she choked out. "How can you . . ."

"It wasn't your fault," Lector said softly, holding her close. "You didn't know what would happen when you took the amulet from our father. And honestly, getting the staff away from Dr. Raven was a good thing. You've helped more than you've hurt."

Evangeline sobbed harder, burrowing against Lector's broad shoulder. "I love you . . . so much. . . ."

"I love you too," Lector said, his voice cracking with emotion.

Berserk Dragon made a satisfied growling sound. It almost looked like it was smiling.

"Don't scare me like that again!" Crump yelled at Lector. "Once in a lifetime is all I can take. Twice in one night is overkill!"

"I'm sorry," Lector said to him. "There really wasn't any other choice."

Crump sighed, his shoulders slumping. "No, I guess there wasn't."

Joey slumped back too, a hand to his heart. "Whew. So all ends happy after all."

"Except for Dr. Raven," Téa laughed.

Dr. Raven, still held fast between Yami Bakura and Nesbitt, scowled deeply.

xxxx

Everyone flew back to the road on the three dragons. But as they neared their vehicles and the beasts lowered themselves to the ground, a figure standing in the road became visible against the night.

"Who's that?" Joey blinked.

Marik went stiff, catching the sight of wildly spiked hair. "Oh no. . . ."

Yami Marik waited until everyone was disembarking. Then he walked over to Gansley, much to everyone's surprise. "Hail the conquering heroes," he said with a mocking sneer.

"You big creep!" Joey yelled, shaking a fist at him. "What the heck are you doing here?!"

"I will never forgive you for what you did to Nesbitt last month," Lector snapped.

Yami Marik stuck out his tongue. "Good! That makes everything more interesting!"

"I'll never forgive you for making me hurt Lector." Nesbitt stepped forward.

"I wouldn't think you would!" Yami Marik exclaimed.

Gansley glowered at Yami Marik. "What do you want?" he snarled.

"So you've all returned, safe and sound," Yami Marik leered. "How amazing, all things considered."

"You've been spying on us all along, haven't you?" Gansley demanded. "You and that mad scientist friend of yours!"

"Who wouldn't have been able to torture you tonight about poor Lector if you hadn't let her go free several months ago," Yami Marik grinned.

Gansley gripped his cane. "She has never let us stop regretting our folly." His voice was dark, dangerous.

Yami Marik started to circle him like a predator taunting its prey. "Always calm and level-headed, aren't you?" he said. "That's why they wanted you as the leader. No matter what happens to all of you collectively or one of you individually, you never break. Not when Nesbitt was mind-controlled or Lector was attacked. Not when Johnson was almost run over or when you had to pretend Crump was dead. And not even when Lector's father tricked him into coming out here to be a scapegoat. Crump nearly got froze to death and Johnson thought he'd been poisoned. Then Lector was almost killed. He was laying there so still and apparently dead after saving Mokuba from that explosion, but you held strong. Johnson went catatonic and Nesbitt tried to pretend he was a machine and Crump kept hoping for a hopeless miracle, but oh no, you weren't going to snap too.

"I wonder what's going to happen next?" He paused for effect, then said, "Maybe I can help it along."

Suddenly Gansley screamed. It was a loud roar, an old lion who had been pushed too far for too long and couldn't take it any longer. Even Yami Marik was startled. Before he had the chance to do anything, Gansley's cane was flying at his head. The crack resounded up and down the deserted street and the madman fell to the ground. Gansley was on him in an instant, beating him again and again, his eyes filled with rage.

The others ran up while he was still striking the demon into the pavement. They ground to a collective halt, staring in shock at the scene before them. For the moment, no one was quite sure what to think or do. Gansley had lost himself in rage, but Yami Marik wasn't mortal; he couldn't be killed. And how many times had many of them wanted to do exactly what he was doing? Even Téa couldn't deny that she had. But still . . .

"Mr. Gansley, stop!" Serenity cried, running forward.

Gansley didn't. Every hit, every blow, was paying this creature back for more of the agony they had been all going through. Khu trying to assimilate Lector into the darkness. . . . Khu killing them all except Lector and Lector being left alive to suffer. . . . Lector's pain having his friend turn against him. . . . Nesbitt's anguish over being mind-controlled into hurting him. . . . Johnson's immense guilt over not being targeted as much as the others when he felt he thoroughly deserved it and they, especially Lector, didn't. . . . Crump getting locked in the freezer. . . . Johnson believing for hours that he had been poisoned and might die. . . . Lector being given that drug to make him look dead, just to make the rest of them suffer. . . . Johnson freezing, unable to speak. . . . Nesbitt denying his humanity out of grief. . . . Crump unable to believe Lector wouldn't be back. . . . Gansley being forced to watch it all, to try to deal with it and keep everyone else calm, to never break. . . .

Crump finally ran past Serenity and over to their tortured leader. "Hey, hey, hey! You must have made pulp out of him by now!" He grabbed Gansley from behind and reached for the upstretched arm with the cane.

Gansley pulled away. Yami Marik was indeed a bloodied mess on the asphalt. But even now he just stared up at Gansley, sneering, taunting him.

"I'll remember this," he hissed. "Your rage . . . I love it." The damage to his body began to mend as he started to fade into the shadows, laughing, laughing.

"You leave my family alone!" Gansley screamed. "Leave them alone!" He fell back, breathing heavily, and finally just let Crump embrace him from behind.

"We're all okay," Crump soothed. "It's going to be alright."

The other members of the Big Five came over as well.

"I am so sorry," Lector said quietly.

"I thought I was concealing a lot of pain," Johnson said. "You've tried to take on all our pain for all of us, plus your own."

"I couldn't have taken it for so long," Nesbitt said. "I've been snapping all over the place."

"I can't take it anymore," Gansley choked out. "I can't. . . ."

"Of course not, if you keep trying to do it all on your own," Crump said.

"Please let us help you," Lector implored. "We want to."

"You've always done so much for us," Johnson said.

"You've always been there when we needed you," Nesbitt said. "We're here for you now."

Gansley looked around at all of them, a little in awe . . . grateful . . . amazed . . . moved. His biological family had left him, just as most of Lector's had him, but they had each other. Together, they were more a real family than any unit that had chosen to abandon one of its own.

"Thank you," he rasped. "Thank you. . . ."

The others stood by and watched as they helped Gansley to his feet. With the burst of outrage past, he looked old again, and tired, and yet, with them all there for him, he looked stronger than he had been before.

"Man, I didn't know he had that much power left in him," Joey muttered. "The way he was going at Yami Marik . . ." He shuddered. "I can't say I really cared what happened to Yami Marik, but just knowing Gansley's physically capable of that kind of attack . . ."

"Gansley's tougher than he looks," Seto grunted. "He always has been." He studied the group. "They all have been. . . ."

Mokuba tried to relax. "So . . . is it all over now?" he said hopefully.

"Except for turning Dr. Raven over to the authorities," Seto said. "And sending the dragons back. . . ."

Lector gave a heavy sigh. "And I will have to see my father one more time. . . ."

"Why bother?!" Crump exclaimed.

"I need to let him know I'm alive," Lector said.

Evangeline suddenly looked worried. "Did I hurt him really badly?"

"I don't think so," Lector told her. "It's mostly his conscience hurting him."

Evangeline made a face. "Just as it should be." She hesitated. "I'm really disappointed in all the family, to be honest. I don't really feel I belong there anymore."

"You could come back to Domino City and live with me," Lector suggested.

Evangeline smiled. "I'd like that . . . only I'm also not sure I want to move away from here. I love New Orleans. I feel like it's been tainted by our family's behavior, and I want to make it feel beautiful to me again. You don't know anybody who might like a roommate, do you?"

"I'm not sure," Lector said. "We'll have to see."

They all started as a portal opened in the sky. The three dragons roared their farewells before starting through it.

"Goodbye!" Mokuba waved. He looked to Seto. "I guess they automatically go back when they're not needed anymore?"

"I guess," Seto said. He stared through the portal, watching Blue Eyes until the doorway closed.

"Well . . . that was pretty amazing," Crump said. "But let's not do it again anytime soon, okay?"

No one disagreed.